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Monthly Archives: May 2010

With iPad fever rocking the UK, Europe and other lucky locations around the world today, research by TNS Technology shows that Apple has once again managed to get consumers excited about products for no reason.

Their research states that despite 18% of UK consumers expressing an interest in purchasing Apple’s ‘magical’ new tablet, 65% are unable to convey what it is that the iPad does.

Whilst 18% could highlight that it could access the web as an internet-ready device, 11% referred to the massive 9.7-inch screen. Beyond that, not many people knew exactly what the iPad was about…

“With so many British consumers interested in buying an iPad, Apple’s new product is creating some of the greatest pre-launch demand of any new device in history. This is despite the fact that most people don’t actually understand what the iPad is, or what it does. This is testament to the power of Apple’s brand and the success of its earlier products.

“We will soon find out if the iPad delivers on its promise to create a new type of mobile device category and to revolutionise the mobile computing market in the same way that the iPhone transformed the mobile phone.”

Research ’boutique’ ChangeWave has recently revealed a survey looking at consumer satisfaction in American smartphone buyers over the last six months, and gleaned some pretty surprising results…

Okay, the first result that isn’t at all surprising, with the iPhone taking the top spot in terms of manufacturer satisfaction and 77% of Apple handset owners giving a ‘very satisified’ response. A welcome surprise in the number two slot is Motorola, with 64% of owners giving the brand the big thumbs up.

Both HTC and BlackBerry makers RIM hover around the 50% mark in terms of consumer happiness, whilst Samsung come in last place by bringing a smile to the face of only 35% of new owners.

Breaking things down by model, the iPhone 3GSis making Apple fans happy with an 81% and 77% rating for the 32GB and 16GB models respectively, whilst the Motorola Milestone/ DROID is the crowdpleaser for the fellow American manufacturer, with almost 70% reporting their smartphone as pretty awesome.

In HTC’s case, more entry level efforts like the Touch and Droid Eris were decidedly less well received than theHTC Hero, whilst the US-only BlackBerry Tour beat out the Bold 9700 and touchscreenStorm 2as texting favourite.

In terms of features, it seems that people love them some apps and hate them some short battery life, with 15% and 12% finding these their biggest smarphone likes and dislikes respectively.

When asked why consumers opted for a particular handset, almost a quarter of BlackBerry users cited the fact that it was provided by their job, whilst almost 40% of Motorola fans chose it due to being on Verizon – the only network to have the DROID in the US – underlining the value of exclusive handsets for carriers.

Once again it’s all about the applications when people choose the iPhone, with 17% of users looking for digital distractions, features and ease of use following closely behind.

When it comes to mobile operating systems, the Apple OS still rules the roost, with the iPhone’s touchy-feely interface making 71% of consumers very satisfied. Android cements its position as the platform of the people, satisfying 67% of Google phone buyers.

WebOS makes a surprising entry at no.3, with 57% of Palm Pre and Palm Pixi users enjoying the intuitive and responsive mobile platform. Limping in last is Windows Mobile, with only 24% finding the operating system any fun to use.

It seems like Windows Phone 7 can’t arrive soon enough for both Microsoft and users alike…

Well received when reviewed back in August last year, the Jet is one of those phones that does impress once off the runway, with a quick processor, 5-megapixel camera and impressive 3.1-inch AMOLED display offsetting any slight disappointment in the overly familiar TouchWiz interface.

However, with the impressive Samsung Galaxy S and bada-powered Wave currently creating more than a little turbulence in the pay monthly sector, we think a shift to prepay for this ‘smarter than smartphone’ is a clever one.

It’s great to see that Windows Phone 7 handsets will be geared up for hands-on gaming, with this video showing a port of action shooter Twin Blades running on a Samsung prototype handset pretty nicely.

Already available on iDevices and the Xbox 360, the cartoony hack-and-slasher sees you play as a chaste nun with only a massive scythe and variety of guns to protect you from waves of the undead.

Check out a video of the gameplay below, complete with cool jazz stylings.

Nokia’s svelte entry level handset, the C5, has surfaced on T-Mobile right on time for it’s scheduled Q2 release.

The Nokia C5 is the first handset in Nokia’s new C-series, which is designed to satisfy the users basic mobile needs, in a svelte exterior.

The C5’s restrained qualities are reflected both in its unassuming looks and a solid spec sheet: 2.2” screen, 3 megapixel camera, 2GB memory (supporting expansion up to 16GB via SDCard).

Powered by a familiar yet efficient Symbian operating system, the C5 delivers an array of Nokia-based services such as Ovi Maps and Ovi Messaging, which make navigation and nattering with your contacts a joy.

The C5 is available absolutely free on contracts as little as £10 per month on a 2 year contract, while £20 per month will get you 600 minutes and 500 textsover the same period.

From 9am tomorrow (Wednesday 26th May) Nokia will be releasing a fleet of complimentary black cabs across four of the UK’s largest cities to promote the new OVI Maps service.

Commuters and sight see-ers lucky enough to spot and hail one of the Nokia Ovi cabs will get a ride to their destination completely free of charge. Nokia will then be running the promotion for a whole week across London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, so for city goers there’s plenty of time to nab your free ride.

Each cab comes installed with a Nokia X6handset, preloaded with Ovi Maps, so that you can track your journey using the service and have a play with the recently added Own-Voice app, which introduces the ability to record your own voices for a truly personal OVI Map experience.

Ovi Maps is free to all Nokia smartphone users and delivers voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation and maps that can be cached on your device, so you don’t have to have reception to use them.

In addition to free cab rides, Nokia are running a competition via Twitter which gives away five Nokia X6 16GB handsets each day from Wednesday 26th May. To enter the comp just tweet #NokiaFreeSatNav!

For more information and to download Ovi Maps visit: http://maps.ovi.com/

We’ve just spottted the latest Blackberry available on pre-order, slightly earlier than we anticipated. The Blackberry Pearl 3G is the first Pearl handset to pack 3G connectivity and with its 642Mhz processor, the Pearl 3G is RIM’s most powerful handset yet.

The neat little handset comes in two versions – theBlackberry Pearl 9105, which is available to order now, features a traditional 14-key mobile keypad with 3 characters per key. Meanwhile the forthcoming Blackberry Pearl 9100 has a condensed 20-key QWERTY keyboard, with 2-characters on each key.

Looks-wise, we can’t help but think the Pearl, minus it’s trackball has lost some of it’s “Pearliness”, but the new optical trackpads that RIM have installed on the Blackberry range are superior in terms of reliability, functionality and navigation

So, if you’d be hankering after a Blackberry, but put off by the bulk, now’s your chance to grab the new Pearl 3G!

Blackberry Pearl 3G deals starts from as little as £20 per month on Orange, with more expensive deals being significantly reduced by Mobiles.co.uk’s half price line rental offer. For instance: 400 minutes, Unlimited texts, Internet, Blackberry Email package is available for £30 per month on a 24 month contract – before you’ve subtracted the 18 months line rental half price line rental!

More details on the Blackberry Pearl 9100 as they become available to us.

Two weeks after Orange, Vodafone and O2 announced their data plans for iPad, pioneers of 3G plans in the UK, the Three mobile network have released their pricing, which looks significantly cheaper than those offered by the “big three”.

With Three 1GB on your iPad costs £7.50, while 10GB is just £15 – all this with no monthly tie-ins.

Compare that to O2′s two monthly packages which put 1GB and 3GB at £10 and £15 respectively, Orange’s fairly reasonable 3GB for £7.50 and Vodafone’s measly 250MB for £10 and Three defintely look to be winning on value.

The news of these highly competitive deals is likely to further excite fans of Apple’s new gizmo, and after a weekend of glorious weather – sitting under a tree in the park with the iPad seems like a distinct possibility.

For more information on iPad data plans or to register interest with Three, please visitwww.three.co.uk/ipad.

Fancy customising your device’s navigation with your own/ a friend’s voice? Own Voice for Ovi Maps allows you to do just that and introduces the concept of the voice pack to Nokia’s smart mobile phone navigation service.

Voice Packs are bundles of pre-recorded phrases that cover each of the fifty-three possible sentence fragments that Ovi Maps uses to assemble directions. “From Turn Right” and “You Have Reached Your Destination” to the likes of “and”, “of” “now” to smooth things off.

The app also lets you record a short description of your Voice Pack so that it can be shared with others via the Own Voice website.

Recording Own Voice is simple and takes just five minutes, one word of warning however – ensure that your vocal snippets are free from background noise or else you’ll be tearing your hair out after hearing the same glitchy sound for the four hundredth time on a long car journey.

Own Voice is straight forward to use and is a great bit of added value for users of Ovi Maps.

If you have a Nokia and haven’t yet tried Ovi Maps yet – what are you waiting for?

He stated that the growth in smartphones will mean that shipments will increase substantially to 260 million in 2010, a sharp rise from last year’s 175 million.

In turn, consumer need for these dispalys would result in the AMOLED business expanding to the predicted 600 million in the next five years.

Justifying recent heavy investment on a new OLED production facility, Woo-jong stated that the demand for these screens will extend beyond merely mobiles, with super screen tech rolling out to telvevisions and tablet PCs in the future. Nevertheless, they welcomed competition from manufacturers such as LG, a major rival in this sector at present.

He claimed: “…the industry needs more major players to grow this market, which is likely to expand application segments to other areas”.

Samsung’s AMOLED production has also break-even and is on the way to becoming a profitable enterprise, further validating their pioneering development efforts.

With predictions that mobile phone shipments are due to increase to over 2.5 billion units in the next five years, it seems shrewd that Samsung are preparing for the inevitable upswing as this demand for displays grow in other product sectors.